Predator: Turnabout

Predator Novels

by Steve Perry

Deep in the Alaskan forest, ranger Sloan comes across the torn and bloody carcasses of Grizzly bears. Searching a human cause for the massacres, he discovers a team of poachers hunkered within the Alaska wilderness, waiting for the chance to score a big kill. He also finds evidence of the most fearsome killers in the universe: the Predators.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Media Tie In, Aliens, Novels

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2008

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.

Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West

Reviews

[Angelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, why can't Hollywood make Predator sequels like this book? Simple story but an exciting and fun read. I think its funny and creative how the author got the names of his main characters, Sloane and Regal (Look at the top of the urinals and you will see sloan regal urinal flush valve). I think Bruce Willis would do a good job playing the role of Sloane. The Hunter becomes the Hunted, the question becomes who is hunting who in this book? Being a huge Predator fan, I would definitely recommend this book to read. Since Hollywood refuses to make more Predator movies, I'm going to read the rest of the Predator and Aliens Dark Horse Books.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first two Predator novels in this series were set on Alien planets and outer space, which were settings very similar to the Aliens novels. This one is more traditional, taking place on earth in our own time period. This had the vibe of the original Predator movie, where you don't know much about the Predators and they were more just monsters lurking in the background, like the shark in Jaws.

In the previous two Predator novels, we were in the Predator's heads, heard their conversations, knew what they were thinking, their names, etc. In this one the Predators are an unknown threat, which works better to me. The monsters are usually scarier when you don't know what they're thinking.

Overall this was good. We had a forest ranger in Alaska leading a civilian on a hike (for reasons I won't go into here, but it made sense.) They run afoul of poachers, bears, and, of course, Predators. The poachers run into the Predators too and...well, I won't spoil it.

This is a good read for Predator fans.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed "Turnabout" a great deal. I've seen some criticisms that there wasn't enough Predator in this Predator book, and I supposed I understand that, but the underlying story was strong enough to stand on it's own even when the Predator wasn't around. I would have legit enjoyed this book if the Predator never showed up. The Predator was just the icing on the cake.

Plot: Woman goes up to remote Alaska to see where her brother died (In true "Grizzly Man" fashion). A Clint Eastwood-esque Park Ranger reluctantly takes her to the spot. Elsewhere in the National Park, Poachers are poaching. Then a couple of Predators show up with predictable results.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for these type of stories but I could read the Predator being dropped into any situation (Like in the awesome prequel "Prey") and just love it.

[Irwin Fletcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book with Predators in the title there's a surprising lack of Predators. It feels like a rejected script somebody had sitting around for a Steven Seagal movie where he plays a former sniper turned park ranger squaring off against a gang of poachers and then decided to turn it into a book and pepper in Predators every once in a while to cash in on some franchise tie-in dollars. The Predators hardly do anything and when they do show up they feel like the weakest/dumbest bunch that ever existed. Three of the four get sniped without putting up a fight. The fourth barely puts up a fight, it tries to but winds up just getting shot from behind when trying to have a showdown with the protaganist. I guess that's a spoiler but honestly the book is so predictable you'll figure out the ending (and most of the events beforehand) before it happens. Anytime in an action movie where somebody refuses to ever shoot a gun, always with some sad backstory for why they will not use a gun.... they're going to save the day by firing a gun in the end. Let's call it Al Powell Syndrome, which of course a character in this book has and they have to overcome it to save the day in the end. That kind of lazy writing fills the book. Everybody is an idiot when the plot needs them to be then a genius when it needs that.

[Alex Dove · Rating 1 out of 5]

This unsubtle book was more dissappointing than The Predator (2018).

I've seen reviews praising its simple premise and story, but that is because it is essentially a power fantasy where a former sniper sees evidence of multiple homicidle aliens and barely blinks as he takes down most of them without difficulty. Even Arnold and crew were freaking out and giving us some heavy tension and that was 7 bad ass special forces soldiers against one predator. That is what made the first two movies and some of the books good, the horror element of one vs many with the last valiant stand.

On another topic, I just didn't understand the secondary villains? Sure, throw some random poachers to up the body count, but instead of an unlikely teamup between them and the ranger to survive, or three seperate groups always hunting each other, but never really coming into contact except for kills, these guys had to be potential rapists just to show how evil they were. Which basically makes the female character only around to have a Hallmark "well your just so uncivilized, but wait I love you" arc with being the prime motivation for the poachers for an unreasonable amount of time. YOU DON'T NEED SOMEONE TO TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH HE WANTS TO RAPE SOMEONE FOR A SOLID 10 CHAPTERS TO LET ME KNOW HE IS A TERRIBLE PERSON!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great and a much more mature book then I was expecting from a Predator novel.

As someone who 100% identifies most with Mary's real life viewpoints on guns I was a bit worried the book was going to be like super rara gun culture, but I underestimated Perry's writing as everyone feels more like humans and less like caricatures. The elements are handled well and maturely, not something I expected from a book of this nature.

The action was really tense and had a few moments where I had audible reactions to moments in this book.

[Joseph Hood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good despite a small handful of typos. Honestly I enjoyed this book more than the "Predators", "The Predator", "AVP" or "AVP: Requiem" movie by far.

I wish FOX would adapt this kind of story (or one of the good comics) into a future Predator sequel rather than trying to change something that doesn't need changing.

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really cool. I liked that Sloane is the typical bad*** marine, he was super cool. I didn't like Mary at first, but realized that she's a great contrast to Sloane's character, and by the end I grew to like her. Great Predator book.

[Daniel Callister · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. It was the story of a former Vietnam vet sniper, now a forest ranger in his 60s living an isolated life in remote Alaska. He is hosting a woman who came to look into the death of her brother and her brief stay with him gets complicated by poachers and four hunter aliens from outer space. The man's survival instincts and training kick into full gear.

It was a cool story and had some pretty awesome moments. Any fan of the movies would appreciate this book. I would give this about 3.85 out of 5.

[L.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would have been 5 but really couldn't stand Mary!

[Benji's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent tale set in the Predator Universe. Right off the bat, I wanna say that the Predator is not in this book a lot, but he does have a looming presence, but that's not at all to say that you should pass on this.

So, a park ranger is showing this woman around the park, whose brother seemingly just got killed by a bear, so she's there to see the place of his death. After a while, they end up finding dead poachers and there's a group of other poachers in the woods who think the park ranger killed their men, so they hunt both him and her.

Turns out (this shouldn't come as a suprise to anyone) a Predator killed those men and they don't believe the woman when she says she didn't and that it was actually an alien of some sort that could turn invisible.

This was probably my second favorite of Steve Perry's work, after Aliens vs Predator: Prey and would definitely recommend.

[Kurtbg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and easy read about an Alaskan park ranger who comes across predators practicing their craft of war by fighting grizzlies. Imagine a novel by C. J. Box with predators instead of bad people.
I do think grizzlies don't get full credit. A swipe with bear claws can do some pretty nasty damage. I don't care if you're an extra-terrestial baddy, those clawed paws are gonna hurt. Grizzlies also aren't major hunters (like wild cats). They actually run from people if they can so I wasn't so keem on them getting shreedded. Some of the hunting techniques are interesting. There's a nice little moment when the Ranger tags one with a sniper rifle and you can imagine the equivalent of "oh ****, where did that come from' tracking through the synapses of the illegal invaders and poachers. That's a violation of federal hunting laws and the Lacey Act. Not cool.

[Ethan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book.

[Justin Stiles]

I'm on page 29 because i'm to buisy reading another book.

[Samrat Sen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent affair. Towards the end of the book, the author tends to drag the plot a bit, which tends to get boring. Other than that the narrative is quite nice.overall a good read for any predator fan.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Perry is still my favorite Aliens and Predator author. I really liked this story.

[Bryan Thomas Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

a standout Predator novel. marred only by the feeling of dragged out pacing a bit in the last third. a great read with good characters and better character development than amy Predator novel so far.